Another Psychiatric Death

Wendy Gazda, 32, a psychiatric patient who died at Kino Community Hospital (in Arizona) earlier this month was pinned face-down on the floor by hospital staffers until she quit moving and her arm turned blue, a federal investigation found.

"The patient was 'bucking,' trying to get up," a security guard said. "When she stopped thrashing, the patient was turned over on her back ... stopped moving while we were restraining her. We turned her over and the patient was blue."

A 10-page statement of deficiencies compiled by Medicare listed the untrained security workers, the hospital's failure to monitor Gazda's vital signs and its failure to report the death to state and federal authorities. Medicare has threatened to "decertify" Kino Community Hospital unless it can prove by Aug. 13 that it has taken steps to assure that no other patient will die as Gazda did.

See also this more detailed report which includes this detail:

Mitch Gluck, Kino's behavioral health director, told investigators there were "no hospital problems" or "process failures," the report says. Kino was awaiting the medical examiner's report "due to the facility's belief that the patient died from a medical condition caused by spousal abuse or the patient's poor health," according to the report. The county's autopsy ruled out physical injury, heart attack or underlying disease as causes of Gazda's death.